Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 4.24
॥
Devanāgarī
नागः कूर्मश्च कृकरो देवदत्तो धनञ्जयः । एते नाडीषु सर्वासु चरन्ति दश वायवः
Transliteration (IAST)
nāgaḥ kūrmaśca kṛkaro devadatto dhanañjayaḥ | ete nāḍīṣu sarvāsu caranti daśa vāyavaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
नागः कूर्मः च कृकरःnāgaḥ kūrmaḥ ca kṛkaraḥnaga, and kurma, and krikara
देवदत्तः धनञ्जयःdevadattaḥ dhanañjayaḥdevadatta, dhananjaya
एते नाडीषु सर्वासुete nāḍīṣu sarvāsuthese, throughout all the passages
चरन्ति दश वायवःcaranti daśa vāyavaḥmove — the ten winds
Translation
"…naga, kurma, krikara, devadatta, dhananjaya — these ten winds move throughout all the passages."
Version
55532ada18a0 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Five secondary breaths are named, and their names are curious: naga ("serpent"), kurma ("tortoise"), krikara, devadatta ("god-given"), dhananjaya ("conqueror of riches"). Their functions will be named below, and they will prove to be absurdly simple: belching, blinking, sneezing, yawning, and what swells the body after death. This deserves noting in advance, for here a trait appears that does the compilers credit. The teaching of the breaths does not disdain trifles: it takes it upon itself to explain both the lofty and the yawn.
This trait is common in ancient systems. They aimed to explain everything, leaving nothing outside the chart; and hence, right beside a discourse on brahman, stands a discourse on blinking. Let us say too what can fairly be said of this. The aim of explaining everything is a merit of the mind and, at the same time, a trap. A merit — because it does not allow one to wave away the inconvenient. A trap — because it inclines one to invent where one does not know: empty places are not left in the chart, and every cell is filled with something.
The Vaishnava side has a caution worth mentioning on this score, and states it of itself. Its books directly limit their subject: "I do not know" is an admissible answer, and the Bhagavatam more than once puts it in the mouths of its own sages. More than that, the very name of its central subject — achintya, "the inconceivable" — is an admission that the chart is not complete and cannot be complete; and this admission it counts not a weakness of the teaching, but its precision.